The Lab D Experience

After teaching a 15 minute lesson for Lab D, I think I have really learned about myself as a teacher. I have made great strides in development from the first day of class, when we taught our mini-lessons, and I feel like I have even made large strides since teaching my Kin ball lesson. I can see/hear a huge difference in myself, and my confidence has grown a lot since the I began in 255. I have a greater appreciation for all of the little things that go into teaching a lesson, and I am trying to use all of this information to be an effective teacher.
Looking over my transcript from Lab D revealed some major changes I have made since my last teaching experience. I cut down on my use of the word "guys", however, I did continue to use "alright" quite a bit during my lesson. This will be my major goal as I continue to teach. I need to eliminate this filler from my lessons. I provided a lot of feedback for a number of students, and it tended to be specific and congruent, rather than just general, although I did do some of that as well. I was pretty happy overall after going through my transcript and really looking at it.
After going over my time code form, I realized that I did a pretty good job managing my time. I had over 50% activity time and an instruction time under 30%, but my management time was over 15%. I think my management time would have been less, but transitioning between stations took much longer than I had expected because of the large number of inexperienced skaters. Had this been another activity other than skating, I think management time would have been much smaller, and I thus, I am not too upset with my time management during Lab D.
Finally, I looked over my feedback form, and I was surprised by how much I had actually given. I was very pleased with the results, I gave very little general feedback, and I gave a lot of positive, congruent, specific feedback. The only negative thing I can find with this area is getting to everyone in the class. There are a few students who I seem to have failed to give feedback to during the lesson. Next time I teach, I will try to make sure I give every student at least 1 piece of specific congruent feedback. Other than that, I am extremely pleased with the feedback form.
Overall, I had a good experience my first time on the ice, even though I had my doubts, and I think the lesson went as smoothly as it possibly could have. No one got hurt (myself included), I covered my material, and I managed to work on most of the problems that I had in my earlier teaching experiences.

Explorer Scavenger Hunt Assignment

I found DJ and Freddy's lesson eye opening with regards to use of technology and inter-disciplinary teaching. My favorite part of the activity was making the flags because I thought it did a good job combining creativity and art with physical education. You don't see these other subjects integrated into the field very often. The ways that they integrated other subjects into their teaching is something I can definitely take from the lesson and apply to my future teaching lessons. I think this is an underrated aspect of teaching in any subject, and that it is important to learn how to do. This type of teaching is so effective because it often presents information in a different way to students (learning about explorers through activity, and actual "exploring"). This type of teaching also reinforces ideas and information outside of the regular environment they would learn it in (i.e. the classroom). Overall, I enjoyed the lesson , and I found the inter disciplinary teaching aspect very interesting. I also liked the way they used technology in their lesson, although I do not know if I would ever use this type of technology in a school setting, just because I do not know how effective/easy it would be to set up. Also, I am not the best 'texter' in the world.
Activity wise, I don't know if the lesson really kept me active. Once I left the gym, there wasn't much motivating me to keep moving. I did the tasks, but I didn't push myself at a fast rate. My HR got up, but not as high as it could have if I had pushed myself more during certain parts of the scavenger hunt. The data supports my ideas about my activity levels. My HR was under the target zone for nearly all of the activity, and I think the only time it was above the zone is when I had to get go to the stadium complex, and I jogged there. I forgot to wear my pedometer so I can't base it on my step count. Although, I think that I did take a decent amount of steps, and that I also probably took more than most of the other people in the class, even though my HR never went up.

Lab C Analysis

Lab C was a great experience considering, it was my first solo teaching experience so far in the class. Time goes by pretty quickly, and it wasn't difficult to find things to do, but instead quite the opposite; there wasn't enough time to do everything I wanted to get done. Unfortunately, I feel that, after looking at my transcript, I may have digressed with regards to my presentation skills. It could just be the fact that I taught for longer than the first time, but I used a lot more fillers during the lesson. I said alright close to 20 times, I don't remember saying it but after listening to the transcript it was eye-opening. Also, I noticed that I used the word 'guys' a number of times when speaking to the class which is also a big problem while presenting. I will have to make sure that I do not do these things when I teach again in Lab D.
I did an alright job managing time during my lesson. There was zero time spent sitting around waiting for an activity to take place. I was somewhat pleased with my time management when I actually sat down and look at my time coding form. There was a bit too much instruction time, but I think that comes when learning a new and unusual skill or game. Overall, I didn't have much of an issue with my time management, maybe next time I will get them into an activity quicker to cut down on instruction time.
After completing my feedback analysis form, I feel like I did a much better job providing feedback in this lesson than my previous ones. I still think I should provide more feedback, and I think I need to really focus on having the feedback be congruent. I referenced a number of cues from my first Kin ball lesson, rather than focusing on the objectives of my current lesson. Overall, I think that I am making progress in becoming a more effective teacher, and I am looking forward to continue the progression with my next teaching assignment.